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Comment by camkego | Hacker News Reader

Whether you find them beautiful or ugly, I think it’s kind of sad you probably couldn’t build these today as dwellings due to building codes. (Or maybe you could?)

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I was thinking, we now know more about effects of various chemicals on the body. And probably fire regulation has been updated too. A lot of this material was quite new then and of course there was a lot of experimentation, and some things that ended up as "dead ends". What would a modern Futuro look like?

In the birth country of Futuro, the craze has been the opposite for at least a decade: all natural and old fashioned materials. Log houses, maybe even stone foundation, natural circulation, clay/chalk wall finishing, tar paper, shredded newspaper + flax insulation. No glue or plastics anywhere. Some of this is first hand experience.

I think one could build a modern and retro futuro-like thing with enough cleverness. Maybe from some wicker style material? The rain proofing is a problem.

I wonder about that… things like creosote were used in older times but not all that great for health either …

Don't people build all kinds of tiny houses and live in them? How does that work with building codes?

Small, even tiny, homes are not a new thing. The house I grew up in was not much larger than the Futuro. A local museum has the house of a local artist inside, and it is about the size of a tiny home. Of course, you also have people living in mobile homes and trailers. I doubt that building codes have much to say on small homes, though zoning would.

That said, the design and materials would have an impact for more innovative designs.

I have something of a fetish for modern tiny homes. I definitely would like to see more around, and to design and build some myself.

https://www.dwell.com/tiny-homes

https://www.houseplans.com/collection/s-tiny-modern-plans

https://metropolismag.com/viewpoints/nine-taliesin-west-most...

https://www.architectmagazine.com/design/the-last-student-sh...

https://www.tsoa.edu/shelter-thesis

My favourite tiny home is a sailboat. My second favourite tiny home is a solar powered boat (a pretty interesting one recently came to an unfortunate end, however), and my third tiny home is a deep, underground bunker.

Dunno why, I do love all the land-surface homes too, but I dream of having any one of the above to live out my latter days ..

All good options.

How about an earthship and a converted school bus to tow a small-ish boat around?

Earthships are awesome, yeah, that'd be a great way to get into the bunker. ;)

Converted school bus? Well, the issue is, I don't wanna pay for gas, man, mmkay... ;)

Ah. I didn't put enough significance on the 'bunker' part. How about finding a property on top of a cavern? I've come across at least one. Or a missile silo..

Bus could be electric, or CNG, or E85, hydrogen, or B100 powered. I once met a guy at a remote intersection in Nevada who was driving a 40ft skoolie back from deep in Mexico to the PNW on collected WVO.. part of an annual migration.

I've been thinking a solar-powered catamaran or trimaran would be a nice project. Could generate and burn hydrogen for fresh water. Or batteries for ballast in a monohull. Extra panels can be vertical.. who is going to invent sails with integrated solar cells?.. Oh, I see that exists now. Very exciting!

https://www.hallberg-rassy.com/news/news/solar-panel-sails-2...

And for the unacquainted:

Lin and Larry Pardey, most famously, made a long life together sailing the world, first, in their homemade, engine-less 24ft cutter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lin_and_Larry_Pardey

Cruising in Seraffyn

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1929214049

https://pardeytime.blogspot.com/

They guy behind the Helios 11 solar-powered boat (which was recently wrecked alas) is exactly the kind of scrappy know-best upstart rebel that the solar powered catamaran world needs .. with Helios 11 on the rocks, he's returned to Sweden to build his solar-powered catamaran. As much as his methods are cheap and nasty, I think he has a lot of the momentum needed to actually pull this off, having sailed Helios 11 from Finland to Spain ..

https://luxurylaunches.com/transport/helios-11-solar-explore...

With a few tweaks here and there, once he gets the cat design fleshed out, I'm quite sure I'll follow his lead and do my own version in the next year or so .. its such a great idea, and my section of the worlds oceans (Croatian coastline) seems like the perfect place to field such a vessel ..

Wyoming says you can take your codes and shove it you know where!

I think you might have to get creative with your local building code for garden sheds / modular homes / trailers etc. Or find some way to designate it as a caravan.

Building codes? What building codes? Where we’re going we don’t need no stinkin’ building codes .. because we seceded from the host nation and have created our own micro-state/principality/sovereignty deal, and if we wanna live in a bubble, then blow away, Oida!!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kugelmugel

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